


Friendship Bracelets

by kiraisstillhere



Series: The USC Trojans Love Jean Moreau [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: i found the prompt on tumblr, jean is a good person who deserves good things, riko hurts jean and i hate him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 21:32:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13221675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiraisstillhere/pseuds/kiraisstillhere
Summary: Jean doesn't like the marks that are left from the handcuffs after he escapes from Riko, so our favorite Trojans help him out.





	Friendship Bracelets

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the lovely Prem (trojean) on tumblr for allowing me to use their post as a prompt for this story! I loved the idea and I just had to put it into words. You can find their blog and the post here: http://trojean.tumblr.com/post/168229939496/jeans-not-really-self-conscious-but-he-really

“So, why did you guys disappear and buy six bags of embroidery floss?” Jeremy asked, sitting on Laila’s bed. He plugged his phone into her charger and watched Alvarez and Laila sort out the string by colors.

 

“Haven’t you seen Jean during practice?” Alvarez asked.

 

“Of course he’s seen Jean during practice, Sara. He can’t take his eye off of the guy.”

 

Jeremy felt himself blush, but didn’t argue.

 

The girls snorted and continued their sorting. 

 

“He’s always looking at his wrists, Jer. You saw the way they looked when Renee had you come over, the way that those handcuffs had torn up his arms. Laila and I are making him bracelets so that he doesn’t have to look at them anymore.”

 

Of course Jeremy remembered what Jean’s wrists looked like. He remembered the entire two day escapade that their coach had barely given them permission to miss practice for. He remembered the call from Renee, he remembered calling Laila and seeing if she and Sara would come with him, he remembered how they had to remind him to not go over the speed limit even though they were going across the country. 

 

He remembered the way that Jean couldn’t move because of the pain and how he  _ still  _ cowered away when he thought that Jeremy was Riko coming back to take him.

 

“Can I help?”

 

\--

 

“Hey, Jean? You decent?”

 

Jean sat up from his bed at the sound of Jeremy’s knocks, his hair a mess from not moving for an hour. He had been looking at his wrists, at the scars that Riko had torn into his them. Handcuffs, knives, paper, literally anything that could get rid of the smooth skin. He needed to stop doing that, Jean reminded himself. It never made him feel  _ good _ about himself.

 

“Uh, yeah, I’m good. The door’s unlocked.” He tucked his hands under the sheets.

 

Jeremy popped into the room, his smile at a thousand watts, almost as bright as his neon yellow team shirt. He had his hands behind his back and he was fidgeting like he was going to explode.

 

Jean just squinted his eyes in confusion. “What’s going on with you?”

 

Jeremy somehow managed to smile even bigger and walked up to Jean’s bed. “Can I sit?”

“Sure? What are you hiding?”

 

Jeremy plopped down on the bed and crossed his legs. Jean noticed his socks didn’t match, and not only were they different patterns, they were different subjects entirely - one was blue and green stripes and the other had flying pizza slices all over it. 

 

“Pretty cool, huh?” Jeremy grinned. His hands were still behind his back. “I think matching socks are bad luck, so I never wear pairs.”

 

Jean quirked his head and looked at  Jeremy in confusion. “What are you hiding?”

 

Logically, he knew it wasn’t weapons of any kind, because USC actually had policies against those kinds of things, but it didn’t stop him from mentally steeling himself for Jeremy to do something heinous. Riko had played the nice guy before, Jean had enough scars to account for that.

 

“Oh, yeah! I forgot about that,” Jeremy said sheepishly. “I was distracted by your room. It’s a little barren.”

 

Jean shrugged. He didn’t exactly have much to put on the walls. He didn’t know what he was supposed to like.

 

“I wasn’t exactly allowed to enjoy things at Edgar Allan,” he mumbled.

 

“Well, we’ll have to fix that. Are you busy today?”

 

“Jeremy!” Alvarez shouted exasperatedly from the hall. Jean figured that she and Laila were outside and Jeremy was supposed to be a lot faster.

 

“You guys can come in,” Jean called out tentatively. He heard them stall for a moment and realized that it would be the girls’ first time in his room. “It’s nothing special.”

 

Laila appeared first, pushing the door open a little more to accommodate for Alvarez following closely behind. She had her hair down instead of its usual ponytail. Alvarez’ hair looked like it was halfway to being dry as it hung down.

 

“Jeremy is taking a moment to get to the point of his coming into my room.”

 

The girls grinned and nudged Jeremy. “When doesn’t he?”

 

Jean shrugged again.

 

“Here,” Alvarez said, grabbing the surprise from Jeremy. She held it out to Jean. “Laila and I spent like two weeks making as many as we could.”

 

In her hand, she had a small pile of string. Bracelets, Jean realized. He looked to Laila, who was holding another pile of bracelets. Both of the girls were smiling almost as brightly as Jeremy. Jean had never worn anything other than the approved wrist watches at banquets. He wasn’t used to being able to express himself.

 

“We noticed the marks on your wrists,” Laila said. “You look at them a lot, and it looks like they hurt you. So Sara and I made you a bunch of these to cover them up, that way the only time you’ll be forced to see them is when you take them off before games, and then they’ll be covered by your uniform, so it won’t matter.”

 

They really did care about him, it just threw him off. Jean needed to start keeping a tally of how many times the Trojans continued to comfort him.

 

Laila grinned and slowly reached out for his arm, still hidden in the sheets. “May I?”

 

Jean stalled, but pulled his arm out and let her take it. She dropped the pile of bracelets and grabbed one that was in red and gold. The Trojans. The team.  _ His _ team.

 

“Like this,” Laila said softly, tying it over one of his scars. “Is that too tight?” She looked up at him, waiting for an answer.

 

The team that saved his life.

 

Jean shook his head. Laila saw this as a sign to continue.

 

“Is it alright if I get to other wrist?” Alvarez asked. Jean offered his other arm to her.

 

Jeremy collected up the piles and began sorting the bracelets out one by one. The four of them sat there in silence, the girls tying bracelets to his arms and Jeremy smiling contentedly while the Southern California sun beamed in through Jean’s window.

 

It took maybe ten minutes, but when they were finished, Jean held up his wrists and looked at them. There was no way to see through the brightly colored bands on his wrists, all the colors that he could imagine, though red and gold was the predominant theme. 

 

“No scars,” Jean said softly, amazement touching his voice.

 

“No scars,” Jeremy agreed. Jean looked up to see his teammates smiling.

 

The girls were the first to stand up. “We’ve got to go, Jeremy said he wanted to take you out for the day,” Alvarez said, making way for the door.

 

“Aw, Sara, that was supposed to be a surprise!” Jeremy said in mock disappointment. She stuck her tongue out playfully and she and Laila disappeared down the hall.

 

Jean looked at Jeremy, who smiled sheepishly. 

 

“Your room is kind of empty. I know it’s because of your whole thing with Edgar Allan, but I wanted to take you out - to the mall, I mean. So that you could get some stuff to decorate with.”

 

Jeremy shrugged and looked down at the floor, his hands shoved into the pockets of his sweatpants. Jean didn’t understand why Jeremy was so embarrassed by asking him to go out for the day.

 

“I’ll go with you, but you _ do _ know that I’m fairly out of touch with the “real world” so to speak.”

 

Jeremy’s face broke into another giant smile. “Really? And yeah, then we’ll have to make it a whole day!” He looked like he was about to start jumping up and down, as if Jean had just said yes to a proposal or something of the sort.

 

“I’m going to change into jeans and get ready - it should only take about thirty minutes? I’ll wait for you.”

 

Jean nodded, and Jeremy bounced out of his room, energy practically radiating off of him.


End file.
